Regional Airport Cargo Development: A Phased Route to Logistics Growth

For many UK regional airports, sustainable passenger growth remains difficult. Competition from major hubs and low-cost carriers is intense, while scheduled routes can disappear as quickly as they arrive.

Cargo offers a different route to growth.

Regional airports often possess precisely the assets that logistics operators need: long runways, uncongested airspace, available development land, large aprons and the potential to operate at night. Many former RAF airfields also contain substantial hangars and dispersed sites that could support new commercial uses.

The opportunity is not simply to attract more aircraft. It is to transform underused aviation land and buildings into integrated logistics estates capable of generating income from road, air and, eventually, emerging forms of transport such as cargo drones.

A different market from Heathrow

Around half of international air cargo travels in the holds of passenger aircraft. This belly-hold cargo is concentrated at major long-haul hubs, where widebody aircraft provide significant capacity beneath the passenger cabin.

Heathrow dominates this part of the UK market. Its extensive long-haul network allows it to handle approximately 60% of the country’s air-cargo tonnage and an even greater proportion by value.

Most regional airports cannot compete directly in this market. Narrowbody passenger aircraft have limited cargo capacity, while routes are determined primarily by passenger demand rather than freight requirements.

The regional opportunity lies elsewhere: dedicated freighters, express parcels, e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, specialist goods and road-fed cargo.

These markets value many of the qualities regional airports can provide:

• Available aircraft slots

• Uncongested aprons

• Fast turnaround times

• Competitive operating costs

• Access to major road networks

• Fewer restrictions on overnight operations

East Midlands Airport demonstrates what this proposition can achieve. Its central location, strong motorway connections and ability to operate around the clock have helped it become the UK’s leading dedicated air-freight hub, supporting major operators including DHL, UPS, FedEx and Royal Mail.

However, most airports should not attempt to recreate the East Midlands model in a single step.

Start with logistics that does not depend on aircraft

The lowest-risk entry point is often a landside logistics and road-feeder estate.

Road feeder services transport bonded air cargo between regional facilities and larger gateways by truck. A regional airport can therefore become part of the national air-cargo network without immediately securing scheduled freighter services.

Cross-dock buildings, fulfilment centres, distribution units and temporary-storage facilities can all generate rental income while establishing the airport as a logistics location. These uses rely primarily on land availability, road access, power and planning consent rather than runway activity.

This first phase can also provide the commercial foundation for later aviation investment. As occupiers and cargo volumes grow, an airport can add airside handling facilities, freighter stands and specialist buildings in response to proven demand.

The result is a more resilient strategy: aviation becomes an additional layer of value rather than the sole basis of the development.

Choosing the right cargo buildings

An airport cargo estate is rarely a single warehouse. Different cargo flows require different types of buildings.

Freight-forwarding facilities are typically designed as cross-docks, with vehicles arriving on the landside and goods moving through screening, customs and consolidation areas before reaching the apron. Express hubs require more complex automated sorting systems and large numbers of loading doors to process high parcel volumes within short overnight windows.

Cold-chain buildings add another level of specialisation. Pharmaceutical and perishable cargo may require several temperature zones, continuous monitoring, redundant refrigeration and carefully controlled transfers between the warehouse and aircraft. These facilities cost more to construct but serve valuable and comparatively resilient markets.

Understanding the intended cargo flow must therefore come before designing the building. Clear height, floor strength, vehicle yards, loading arrangements, security, fire protection and airside access should all be determined by the operational model.

A generic warehouse placed beside a runway does not automatically become an effective air-cargo facility.

Can former RAF hangars be converted?

Historic military hangars can be among an airport’s most distinctive assets. Their large, column-free interiors may appear ideally suited to logistics, but successful conversion requires a realistic assessment of their limitations.

Older hangars were designed around aircraft storage and maintenance rather than modern warehouse operations. Common challenges include weak or unverified floor slabs, inefficient building envelopes, limited loading docks, inadequate fire compartmentation and restricted yard depths. Listed status can introduce further constraints.

As a result, converting a hangar is not always cheaper than constructing a purpose-designed logistics building.

The strongest argument for reuse is often environmental and strategic rather than purely financial. Retaining an existing structure can substantially reduce embodied carbon, shorten delivery programmes and support a heritage-led planning case.

Hangars are particularly well suited to activities that value large, open volumes without requiring tall automated racking. These might include road-feeder cross-docks, light manufacturing, aircraft-related businesses, vehicle storage, film production or large-object storage.

Where high-bay racking, advanced automation or tightly controlled internal conditions are essential, a new building may offer better long-term value.

The most effective masterplans frequently combine both approaches: retain and adapt suitable historic buildings while placing modern logistics units elsewhere on the airfield.

The infrastructure behind the buildings

Cargo growth depends on more than warehouse space. Three factors can determine whether a regional airport has a credible proposition.

The first is operational flexibility. Express networks are built around overnight movements, so restrictions on night flying can remove a large part of the addressable market.

The second is runway capability. Length, pavement strength, taxiways and apron geometry must be assessed against the specific aircraft an airport hopes to attract.

The third is border infrastructure. International cargo may require bonded storage, temporary-storage approval, customs systems, Border Force support and, for certain animal or plant products, an appropriate Border Control Post.

Power and road capacity are equally important. Modern logistics buildings, refrigeration systems, automation, electric vehicle charging and future aviation technologies can create substantial electrical demand. These requirements need to be understood at the start of the masterplanning process.

Preparing for drones and advanced air mobility

Cargo drones are already operating in specialist UK applications, including medical deliveries, island services and offshore support. Wider operations beyond the pilot’s direct line of sight are expected to become more common as regulation and airspace systems develop.

Electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft are likely to take longer to reach commercial scale, particularly where larger cargo payloads are concerned.

Regional airports should therefore avoid investing heavily in speculative infrastructure today. The more practical approach is to preserve future options.

New cargo developments can safeguard space for drone landing areas, charging equipment and ground-control facilities. Masterplans can also reserve appropriately located land and grid capacity for a future vertiport without committing to immediate construction.

This “reserve now, build later” approach allows airports to respond as technology and regulation mature while avoiding expensive assets that may remain unused for years.

A phased route to growth

For most regional airports, cargo development should follow a staged progression.

The first phase is to understand the site: its runway, operating restrictions, road access, power capacity, existing buildings, heritage constraints and developable land. Landside logistics, road-feeder facilities and appropriate hangar conversions can then begin generating income.

The second phase is to add aviation capability where demand and infrastructure justify it. This could include freighter stands, cargo-handling facilities and specialist cold-chain capacity supported by an established operator or occupier.

The final phase is to develop a genuinely multimodal logistics campus, potentially integrating air, road, rail and unmanned aviation.

Cargo is not a universal solution, and not every regional airport can or should become a major freight hub. But many have an opportunity to use their land, runways and existing buildings more effectively.

The central principle is simple: begin with uses that create value now, add aviation infrastructure in response to credible demand and preserve the flexibility to accommodate the technologies that come next.